Although I had upper deck seats, all the goals were at my end of the ice, which was great since I was rooting for Tampa. Here were some +s and -s from what I saw:

-The ice and the "sellout." It's never good noticing the ice, but it was bad even from my POV. A few wet spots, but a LOT of skipping pucks. Not sure why b/c it was about 28-30 degreesF here in Raleigh during the game. As for the SRO sellout, I was really surprised at how many empty seats there were. The attendance was never announced, something I found odd at a "opening night sellout." It wasn't as loud as I expected, though the Canes didn't give the home fans much to get crazy over.

+Garon. What a game by the lefty, he looked great! More importantly, his positioning after rebounds was very good. No sliding past the net/over-correcting, a number of beautiful kick saves.

+The defense without Brian Lee. The Lightning D was effective, kept the Canes moving the puck, and did not allow much in the way of traffic in front of MG. Aulie netting one on Ward's short side caused an "Aulie Aulie Aulie (OY OY OY)" chant from myself and another Lightning fan. The section around us LOVED that one

-/+ Stamkos. You can really see the talent and puck possession, but a step behind more than once. I'm not worried, just a little rusty I hope.

-The boarding calls. At least two of them were blatant BS. There is a difference between physical hockey and illegal hits! After the third boarding call during a TV timeout, Boucher summoned the refs and had a long talk with them. For some reason after he talked to them, they stopped.

+Conacher's on ice presence. There were a lot of "who is 89?" questions tonight from the home fans...and he played that way. His forecheck was outstanding, and he was constantly the guy you were watching whether or not he had the puck. I enjoyed watching him play tonight.

Random: Canes/Lightning alumni Cory Stillman was in attendance, and I didn't recognize him because he had hair! The CS I remember always had a shaved head.

It was a great game to be in attendance for tonight as a Lightning fan, and a really nice way of ending a 5 year streak of not seeing the Lightning in person. They played well, not without a few mistakes, but dominated the 1st and 3rd. Go Bolts!

Although I had upper deck seats, all the goals were at my end of the ice, which was great since I was rooting for Tampa. Here were some +s and -s from what I saw:

-The ice and the "sellout." It's never good noticing the ice, but it was bad even from my POV. A few wet spots, but a LOT of skipping pucks. Not sure why b/c it was about 28-30 degreesF here in Raleigh during the game. As for the SRO sellout, I was really surprised at how many empty seats there were. The attendance was never announced, something I found odd at a "opening night sellout." It wasn't as loud as I expected, though the Canes didn't give the home fans much to get crazy over.

+Garon. What a game by the lefty, he looked great! More importantly, his positioning after rebounds was very good. No sliding past the net/over-correcting, a number of beautiful kick saves.

+The defense without Brian Lee. The Lightning D was effective, kept the Canes moving the puck, and did not allow much in the way of traffic in front of MG. Aulie netting one on Ward's short side caused an "Aulie Aulie Aulie (OY OY OY)" chant from myself and another Lightning fan. The section around us LOVED that one

-/+ Stamkos. You can really see the talent and puck possession, but a step behind more than once. I'm not worried, just a little rusty I hope.

-The boarding calls. At least two of them were blatant BS. There is a difference between physical hockey and illegal hits! After the third boarding call during a TV timeout, Boucher summoned the refs and had a long talk with them. For some reason after he talked to them, they stopped.

+Conacher's on ice presence. There were a lot of "who is 89?" questions tonight from the home fans...and he played that way. His forecheck was outstanding, and he was constantly the guy you were watching whether or not he had the puck. I enjoyed watching him play tonight.

Random: Canes/Lightning alumni Cory Stillman was in attendance, and I didn't recognize him because he had hair! The CS I remember always had a shaved head.

It was a great game to be in attendance for tonight as a Lightning fan, and a really nice way of ending a 5 year streak of not seeing the Lightning in person. They played well, not without a few mistakes, but dominated the 1st and 3rd. Go Bolts!

always good to see another NC Lightning fan on here! Couldn't make the game tonight, but ill be at the one in feb!

This is the biggest issue with him IMO. There were easily 5+ times I remember going oh come on Hedman when he had a weak clearing attempt. He battles and wins the puck but then doesn't get enough on the clear or makes a bad decision on which way to go with it. It's gotten much better over time but still needs to be minimized more. Other than that though he's been great.

We are looking like a much more complete hockey team this year. Hedman seems to have grown into his game more. I can't say enough about Conacher. So glad I picked him up in FF hockey. When I watch the games it seems that we are playing with faster and more energetic pace this year. Garon looks better than Lindback in net, but it seems like we will use a split until one goalie gets established .

Whew, defense looked good top to bottom. Let's keep these pairings for a while. Aulie has been a real pleasant surprise so far.

Garon looked solid for most of the game, then great at the end.

Stamkos isn't playing bad IMO. For christ sakes, he's tied for the team lead in points.

Thought Tyrell looked good too.

Yeah, he's got the points, but I still think he looks off. He seems a step or two slower. His passing has been bad and I'm nervous everytime he gets the puck in the D zone. For all the talk last year about how one dimensional he is, it never bothered me. I think he'll be fine obviously, and a bad Stamkos is still better than 90% of the players in the league, but he needs to shake the rust.

Yeah, he's got the points, but I still think he looks off. He seems a step or two slower. His passing has been bad and I'm nervous everytime he gets the puck in the D zone. For all the talk last year about how one dimensional he is, it never bothered me. I think he'll be fine obviously, and a bad Stamkos is still better than 90% of the players in the league, but he needs to shake the rust.

This. If you look at the majority of Stamkos' assists, he's not the final pass that leads to the goal. It's the pass prior or some fluke (on Malone's PP goal last night) that leads to an assist. It's nice that he's producing points when he's not completely on yet, but it'd be nice to see him put everything together again. It'll happen soon, we all have faith in him.

Looked 50/50 to me. both went for the puck at the same time and got there at the same time. Doesn't really matter. Stops St Louis from being, along with Conacher, the first player to score a point in all three games apparently. That can't be ever? Surely?

In the Final Fantasy games when you win a fight this is the music that plays.
Lightning won seemed fitting.

Yeah well maybe you will think about that next time you try and make a reference to pop culture when not everyone knows what you are talking about. We aren't about leaving people left out here and you need to be more open to the idea of everyone's feelings.

Yeah, he's got the points, but I still think he looks off. He seems a step or two slower. His passing has been bad and I'm nervous everytime he gets the puck in the D zone. For all the talk last year about how one dimensional he is, it never bothered me. I think he'll be fine obviously, and a bad Stamkos is still better than 90% of the players in the league, but he needs to shake the rust.

I'd agree. He has gotten the points but looks little slow and/or lacking that extra kick/drive. Well this is tough grind season, he can take it easy some games.. better than losing him. Maybe he has small injury.

Yeah well maybe you will think about that next time you try and make a reference to pop culture when not everyone knows what you are talking about. We aren't about leaving people left out here and you need to be more open to the idea of everyone's feelings.

Give your head a shake.

I apologies for being so inconsiderate to my fellow Lightning fans. However now that we have established the reference, its reason for being posted and everyone knows what the significance of it is , I see no reason why I cannot continue to post it after the next and all Lightning wins.

I apologies for being so inconsiderate to my fellow Lightning fans. However now that we have established the reference, its reason for being posted and everyone knows what the significance of it is , I see no reason why I cannot continue to post it after the next and all Lightning wins.

Your username is inconsiderate. It makes other people, not me though, feel inadequate at science.

Yeah well maybe you will think about that next time you try and make a reference to pop culture when not everyone knows what you are talking about. We aren't about leaving people left out here and you need to be more open to the idea of everyone's feelings.

Give your head a shake.

Can't tell if serious, but I'll bite. It only says "Final Fantasy...Victory Fanfare..." as the title, what could that video possibly be of? That was incredibly rude.

In the Final Fantasy games when you win a fight this is the music that plays.
Lightning won seemed fitting.

So I WAS trying to read too much into it. I thought that there was supposed to be more to the video, because it was so long. I recognized the characters, but not the music. Thought it may be some inside HFBoards thing that I did not know about.